Desk Crit (Given) #3

Date Reviewed: 10/30/08
Project: Lakota Moon
Creator: Lenrose Fears
URL: http://sites.google.com/site/lakotamoonwebsite/

Lenrose-

Thank you for taking the time to show me around your site last Thursday. I really enjoyed spending some time looking through what I think is a fantastic project and one you should be very proud of! In my opinion, you are much farther along and therefore prepared for next Thursday's Dress Rehearsal than I ever was... or am now, for that matter! Overall, I thought your site was aesthetically pleasing (great color palates, contrast, lighting, etc.), easy to navigate, and effective for its intended student audience. You can tell that you've put a tremendous amount of thought, time, and energy into producing something that will actually be used in a classroom.

At far as suggestions for improvement at this point, I have a few things to share, most of which you've already heard. They are trivial in nature or have already been addressed by the time you get this Desk Crit. Nonetheless, here goes: First, make the "Before you read" headline on the first page a little bigger and/or bolder. Next, make sure you put colons after specific quiz questions throughout the site. Thirdly, your site opens new windows each time you click on a link. Get rid of the "blank" option when telling your site where to go for the next page. By leaving this blank, you'll stay within your site when going to new pages. Only open a new window when you're leaving the site itself. Next, your ideas about the use of Oregon Trail and its derivatives/branch-offs would be very relevant to the covered topic. Keep that in there. Lastly, make sure you look at your site in all three relevant browsers: IE, FireFox, and Safari.

Overall, like I said before, I think your project looks great! You are in a great position going into next week because you can really take the time to step back and actually use the feedback people are giving you. Often times I get great feedback but never get the time to use it. Hopefully that won't be the case for you.

Great job so far, and I look forward to seeing the end product!

Mark Caponigro